Anyone hear from Johns Hopkins Yet?

I remember one of the first times I was friend requested on Myspace by a stranger. It was a high school girl looking to apply to Pratt (my alma mater), wondering if I could offer any advice or insight about the application process. What a genius, I had thought. If I had had Myspace when I applied for college, I would have done the same thing.

Now, of course, there are more places online to find information about a school and its students. For example, Pratt has its own Livejournal community where both current and prospective students mingle on a daily basis.

The New York Times (reg. required) has an interesting article about this.

From the article:

"College and graduate school applicants awaiting the good, or bad, news from admissions offices—some already in hand, some coming any day now—have discovered the addictive joys of chronicling their experiences in excruciating and often embarrassing detail online in blogs and on forums."

And more, "On Web sites like lunch-money.com, gradschoolforum.com and studentdoctor.net, among many others, participants are Web-casting love songs to admissions committees, describing lucky meals to eat before the mail arrives, comparing SAT scores, typing through tears of rejection and rating the best and worst notification letters…. 'Anyone hear from Johns Hopkins yet?' is a typical initial posting on many forums, beginning a so-called thread of dozens, maybe hundreds, of responses to the poster that alternately empathize, ridicule, console and misinform on his or her chances of actually hearing from Johns Hopkins. '(Especially at this late date!!!)' And there are dozens like this: 'Rejected … now what?'"

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